It just seemed like another day to 32-year-old cable technician by day and rocker by night Randall Logan.
He started off his day as always, by sharing a few mundane words about work with his close friend and co-worker, 29-year-old Jason McNelis. Before Logan knew it, their conversation was over and they hit the road for another day of work around the city as electrical and cable contractors. But what seemed to be just another day on the roads of Las Vegas instead turned all too tragic.
“I found out later that night,” Logan says. “I initially got a phone call from one of our co-workers who asked if I could go and [cover a call] because Jason got in a car accident. So I just went in to cover, but when I was back in the office around 6 or 9 p.m. one of our co-workers called and said it was a fatal car accident.”
McNelis was killed in the early afternoon of July 24 when a flatbed truck blew a tire going westbound on Summerlin Parkway, sending the out-of-control vehicle into the eastbound lane and colliding with McNelis’ Toyota pickup, completely destroying it.
But in the wake of McNelis’ tragic death, his friends and family remember the 6-foot-1, 235-pound former drummer of local band Corner Stone, UNLV football player and sports enthusiast as a caring father and husband who loved being in the spotlight.
“He was a larger-than-life personality,” says McKenzie McNelis, Jason’s wife. “He was the center of so many circles. He did everything.”
McNelis, an intern for KOMP 92.3-FM evening DJ Laurie Steele, proposed on-air in December 2004 to McKenzie, whom he had been dating since that April. McKenzie McNelis says, “He wanted to be the center of attention and he definitely got it that night. It was amazing.” The couple were married two years later and soon had a son, two-year-old Chris, with another a child on the way.
“He was just an amazing father,” McKenzie McNelis says. “All he wanted to do in life was to get married and have kids. He wanted to have four or five kids because he wanted a little mini football team.”
McNelis also drummed with Logan in Corner Stone from 2002 through this February. According to Logan, the band’s lead singer, that was just a small part of McNelis’ active lifestyle. In addition to being a coach for Eldorado High School’s football team, McNelis had begun training to fight in the popular sport of mixed martial arts.
“One of the things I used to joke with him about was that he never really figured out what he would be when he grew up,” Logan says. “He had sports, music and radio under his belt. He threw himself completely into anything he was into. He took everything he did very seriously.”
A show is being planned for September to benefit McNelis’ family, who are left with memories not only of his many accomplishments, but of the caring individual they loved. “He looked so tough, but once he started talking he was so funny,” McKenzie McNelis says. “I didn’t know one person who didn’t like him. He was a gigantic teddy bear.”